


Limbo

by twigwig



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon), Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, marie as in erwins love, otgw au, plus i dont write nsfw stuff, there will be no sex, theyre like 16 in this so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-09 15:10:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3254297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twigwig/pseuds/twigwig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean and Marco end up far from home, farther than they ever thought they would have come. Meeting talking animals and strange characters on their way, they slowly journey back to Trost, but all is not how it seemed.</p><p>Tumblr: jelly-pug<br/>OTGW tumblr: king-wirt<br/>Twitter: @jellypug_</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Old Grist Mill

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my OTGW AU! It’s very canon, and follows the plot, but I’m writing the characters differently to fit their personalities so the plot isn’t word for word the same. The ending is also different, and I’m planning on writing a sequel, so please don’t write this off because you don’t want to just read OTGW with different names.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter, and so is based on the events of The Old Grist Mill, episode 1.

"Marco, where are we?"

We were surrounded by copper coloured trees that loomed high above us. Leaves crunched underfoot with every step I took, and mine and Marco's pace fell into a steady, synchronised rhythm. The air hung dead around us, the silence so loud it echoed in my ears. I didn't recognise anything. The whole place just felt... unnatural. But I swear, just two minutes ago we were walking through the woodland near the graveyard. So why was I so suddenly filled with this sense of unfamiliarity?

"I think we're lost," I sighed, looking down at the floor, muttering poetry to myself. “Though I am lost, my wounded heart resides back home in pieces. Strewn about the graveyard of my lost love.”  
I looked over at Marco, who was just ahead of me, and crouching, looking into a bush. "Marco?"

"Come 'ere, I found something," he whispered. His hands slowly moved into the bush, palm spread upwards. I walked over, sighing. What had the woodland prince found now? Nuzzled into Marco's hand, was a soft black nose, attached to a snowy white muzzle. It nipped him and licked his arm as Marco slowly stroked down its back, smoothing down striking orange fur. "It's a baby fox! Isn't it cute?"  
Marco scooped it into his arms, standing up as he tickled it's belly. The bushy tail curled up as the fox's body fell limp under Marco's touch. I reached my hand out too at this point, scratching behind pointed ears. "Where's it's mum?" I asked. Marco shrugged, and then looked thoughtful.

"I'm going to keep it.  
"You can't do that."  
"I can if she has no mum."  
"But we don't know that, she might have one."  
"Fine. If she follows me, then we keep her."  
"Fine."

Confidently, Marco let the fox down, and turned to walk down the winding path. Immediately, the fox scampered after him, keeping close to Marco's heels. He stopped and looked at me smugly. "Well?"

I sighed. “Fine.”  
“You already said that.”  
“Shut up.”

I jogged to catch up with him, the sound of small pattering feet now mingling with ours. Soon, a deep sound could be heard in the distance. As we drew closer, it was clear it was singing. A tall man, singing along to the beat of an axe hitting wood, was hunched over a tree stump. “Marco, who’s that?”  
“Jean, do you really think I know?” Smarmy little shit. But he had a point, why would he know? The chopping stopped and he dropped to his knees, blond hair slicked with sweat. I stepped closer to try and see his face. Snap. Fuck.

“Who’s there?” the man called out, his voice gruff. He stood, revealing himself. He was tall, very tall. Broad shoulders and a proud stance. His hair was neatly parted, and his undercut revealed his auburn roots. Atop his head was a crumpled grey top hat, worn with age and rain. As I focussed on his face, I froze. His eyes were cold, hard and emotionless. Above them were thick eyebrows, furrowed in confusion. They relaxed slightly, as he’d obviously decided it was just a small animal. A long grey coat swayed around his knees as he returned to gathering his wood, a small lantern by his feet creating dancing shadows. Marco ran forward.

“Marco, Marco!” I hissed, sighing in resignation. “We don’t know who he is what if he’s some deranged lunatic?”  
“We should ask him for help,” Marco suggested, not taking notice of my furious head shaking and repeated no’s as he walked into the clearing, greeting the maybe-murderer and asking what his name was.  
“Erwin,” replied the man.

I stepped forward. There was no point in hiding anymore since Marco had so wisely revealed himself. He was only collecting wood, though. So he said. “You boys should be careful out here, there’s the Beast. She stalks the woods, preying on lost souls. And from what Marco said, you sound very lost to me.”  
I scoffed. “A Beast? What, like a bear? And how would it know we’re lost?” Erwin just responded cryptically. There’s more to these woods than we know; blah, blah, blah.

“You’ll come with me,” he continued. “You can stay at my mill for the night and depart for the nearest town, Shiganshina, in the morning.” He picked up his lantern and set off, boots crunching in the undergrowth and wood rattling on his back. Marco followed eagerly, his fox bounding after him.

“Hey, Marco. You gonna give that thing a name?” Marco hummed softly, glancing over to the fox.

“How about Kitty?”  
“Marco she’s a fox, not a cat.”  
“Speckles? Twinkle-toes? Jeremy? Oh oh I know - Jean.”  
“Yes, Marco?”  
“No, Jean. That’s his name. Jean Jr.”  
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?”

Marco giggled, a gleeful light sound that rang through the otherwise heavy silence. I looked up to see a grin plastered across his face, crumbs scattered amidst his freckles. He’d been leaving a trail of cookie crumbs in the hope we’d at least be able to get back to where we started if the town was of no help. “Here, have one,” he said, placing a cookie in my hands. I returned his grin, but mine wasn’t much of a grin, more of an awkward twitching of the mouth. “Did you know, if you eat too many chocolate chip cookies, you’ll grow freckles like the chocolate chips?” He beamed, pointing at his own freckles. “That’s a rock fact!” He pulled out a small oval rock, with a face painted onto it. It had blue dotted eyes and a yellow mouth, a bright red tongue hanging out. The eyes were facing in opposite directions, making it look goofy. I just did that short breathy laugh at him. You know, when the air come out of your nose and your chest bounces once whilst you smile, but you don’t make any laughing noises.

“We’re here,” Erwin called from ahead of us. A small grey cabin sat in the centre of a large clearing, another taller building attached to it with a mill wheel on the side. The wheel sat in a babbling river, which span the wheel gently, making the mechanisms within the building creak and groan. “I found this place abandoned,” Erwin answered, to the question we never asked. “I repurposed the mill to grind this Edelwood here into oil.”

He stepped through the door, setting his lantern down carefully on the table, muttering to it. Crazy old man. Marco and… Jean Jr flopped onto a bench, both munching on cookies. Erwin was bent over a fireplace, clashing flint together until a fire began to crackle. “You two stay here while I work, I’ll be back shortly.”

“Uh, work?”  
“Yes, son. I grind this wood into oil to keep this lantern burning bright.” Erwin patted the lantern that he had set on the table.  
“You don’t sell the oil?” I was confused, surely he didn’t use all the oil on that one lantern.  
He stepped through another door that led into a loud room, presumably where the mill was. “We all have a burden to carry, and this is mine.”

I nudged Marco, making a face at him. He made a face back and nudged me harder whilst stuffing more cookies into his mouth. “He sounds crazy,” I whispered, forcing the words through gritted teeth. “Lets make a break for it.”

Erwin turned, a suspicious look on his face. “What was that?”  
"Jean said we should leave,” Marco said brightly. Fucking dumbass.  
“I would not do that if I were you. The Beast is out there, stalking in the shadows. She sings her mournful melody, searching for those who have lost their way within the woods.” On that creepy note, he stepped into the next room, wood and lantern in hand.

With a mouth full of cookie, Marco asked me what this Beast was. I shrugged, suggesting that Erwin was crazy and we should leave. I then started reasoning out loud whether we should run away or not, because after all Erwin did have directions to a town for us, but on the other hand he seemed vaguely insane. As my ramblings petered off, I looked over at Marco whose eyes were glazed over in thought.

“Do you think we’ll get home soon, Jean?” It was so quiet I barely heard him. So scared and feeble. Not that I could blame him, I was scared too. We had no idea where we were, who this man was, or how far we’d come from home. All we knew was that we came over the garden wall. I took in a breath, preparing to answer. A nice cheerful, sunny answer. Yes, Marco, we’ll definitely get home. That’s what I’d say. “Did you hear that?” Or maybe I won’t say that.  
“Hear what?”  
“There’s a growling, it came from outside.” He rose from the bench, creeping towards the door.  
“Marco, stop that, what if it’s dangerous?” He gripped the handle, inching the door open slightly. And then immediately slammed it shut. “Marco?” He was white as a sheet, body pressed hard against the door.  
“An, an eye. A bright yellow eye, staring at me. It’s out there.”  
“What’s out there?”

The door crashed open, and Marco was flung across the room where he fell amongst splintered wood. A large wolven creature stood in the doorway illuminated by moonlight, snarling at me. Marco was to my right, body limp and head bloody. The fox was nuzzling his head, whining with her tail between her legs. I yelled, waving my arms and trying to distract the creature. I couldn’t let it get Marco. It stalked forward, snarls growing louder. I picked up a broom that lay on the floor, brandishing it like it was some mighty weapon. It could have me, but not Marco. Not Marco.

“Boys? What’s going on in here?” Erwin burst in from the other room. Idiot.

The wolf jumped at him, skidding into the other room and rendering Erwin unconscious. The axe lay in his hands, useless. I had to get to it. The wolf turned on me again. With no other distractions left for it, I steeled myself for an attack. The tension in the air grew and grew, until eventually it ran at me. I ran straight back at it, sliding beneath it in the nick of time, and scrambled back to my feet and towards the axe. “Hey!” It’s head whipped around. “What are you looking at, bitch?” It snarled louder. “Come and get me, you fucker!” At that, I turned and ran, terrified of it following me. And there was a dead end. Fabulous. It had me in a corner, and it was well aware of that fact. I positioned myself in front of the wheel of the mill, hoping if I couldn’t kill it when it came at me, the wheel would at least incapacitate him long enough for Marco to escape.

And it did just that. Kinda.

It’s movements were much more calculated this time, more deliberate and slow. I was close enough that lunging forwards with the axe, I might just manage to hit it. Instead, I waited. Eventually, when it pounced I tried to jump out of the way, flailing the axe as I did so, but I only just managed to evade it’s strike. The wolf fell into the wheel, caught in the mechanism. It choked and spluttered, eyes full of fear. My face was inches from his. I stretched my arm out, fingers resting against it’s nose. It may be a predator, but that was its nature. Killing this creature gave me no pleasure. None at all.

The mechanisms shuddered, begin to fail and break. The building also began to shatter, falling down around us. The creature spluttered once more, and the strangest thing happened. A turtle, no bigger than my palm, flew from it’s mouth coated in slimy cookie crumbs. The creature slipped into the wheel, splashing into the water below with a squeal as the rest of the building collapsed around me.

What. The. Fuck.

I staggered to my feet, pushing wood out of my way as I rose to stand on the rubble. I stumbled outside to see what happened to it and how the hell it fit through the wheel. A dog crawled out of the river, spluttering and coughing and sopping wet. It looked exhausted. And it was a miniature version of the creature that was inches away from killing me a minute ago.

“Jean? Jean, what happened?” He woke up fast.  
“That thing you saw in the door attacked you, knocked you unconscious. Erwin, too. I’m sure he’ll come round soon.”  
“What was it? I’d never seen anything like it.”  
“A, uh… a dog.”  
“Right.”  
“I’m serious!” I frantically tried explaining it to him, and he just laughed. He laughed. I almost died protecting him and he laughed.  
“It’s just so… ridiculous. It must be true though, you weren’t the one who was unconscious, but it’s still so absurd!” He carried on laughing, laughing so hard his face went red and he doubled over. Eventually sound just stopped coming out, it was more like wheezing at this point. Shaking my head, I made my way over to Erwin. He had clearly taken a worse hit than Marco.

 

* * *

****The next morning, he finally woke up, asking what had happened. I nervously explained, watching the mans face crumple as I broke the news of his mill to him.

“The mill destroyed? My oil… all gone?” He trembled, his hands shaking as he cradled the lantern.  
“But, uh, I got rid of the Beast. That’s good, right?” Erwin looked at me, shaking his head.  
“That was not the Beast. It was just a dog. The Beast sings like an icy wind, stalks us like prey, she’d the death of all hope!”  
“Maybe I can fix your mill,” I offered. He shook his head, standing, and gave us directions to Shiganshina. I doubted we would ever see him again, and if we did he would not be so welcoming.  
“Beware the Unknown, boys. Fear the Beast. Leave these woods, and never return.”

* * *

 

“So, Shiganshina? You ever heard of that, Marco? You’re the nerd,” he looked at me, offended.  
“I am not a nerd, I am simply just more intelligent than you are.” Oh. He wants to go there?  
“Fight me.”  
“Jean,” he sighed. “I would never sink down to your level like that.”  
“Dick,” I mumbled. He flashed that grin at me again, and I awkwardly twitched my mouth back. This one was meant to be a smirk. Ah, I do love being self conscious.  
“I haven’t, though.” What? “Shiganshina, never heard of it. I guess it must just be a small town. Come on, Pluto!”  
“Pluto?”  
“My fox. I decided Jean Jr doesn’t suit him, he’s too nice.”


	2. Hard Times in Shiganshina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: cumberbizatch  
> OTGW tumblr: king-wirt  
> Twitter: @jellypug_

“Hello? Anyone there?” A small twittering voice came from behind us. Marco paused, glancing around. He looked at me and I shrugged. "Down here, in the bush. I’m stuck!" We were in a forest, that could be literally anywhere. Marco though, the Good Samaritan he is, began to search them all. Eventually, he came to a holly bush, tentatively pulling apart the branches.  
"Hello?" He ventured. "Oh." His hand snaked through the leaves, and he winces slightly as he withdrew his arm. His hands were cupped against his chest as he stood, telling me to come closer. He opened his hands to reveal a small green-backed tit, which he explained had its wing caught in the branches. It's wings were a striking deep blue, slashes of white and patches of black defined the feathers. As its name suggested, it had a fern green back, the breast a slightly lighter shade. Two beady black eyes were staring at Marco, set into a navy blue head that matched its wings.

“Uh, Marco? I don’t think that’s what was asking for help.” He looked at me, quizzically.

“You think I thought that?” He giggled. “I just saw it when I looked in the bush.”

Alright, he had a point. Again. Birds don’t talk, and Marco knew that. “Thanks,” the voice from before uttered. Marco was staring, wide eyed, at the bird when I looked over. It then opened its beak and talked. “You really helped me out. But now I owe you a favour for saving my life… ew.” The bird just sat there in Marco’s hand, looking like it thought it wasn't completely miraculous that it just talked.

“My name’s Eren, by the way. What’s yours?”  
“M-Marco. That’s Jean.”  
“Nice to meet you M-Marco.” I smirked. Talking bird or not, I might like this guy. “So, uh, you two seem lost. How about I take you to Adelaide? She’s the good woman of the woods, she can get you home.” Marco’s face was shining, like the idea of going to see Adelaide was positively magical.

“Thanks, but no thanks Eren. Talking birds, strange women in the woods. I’m going to Shiganshina. Come on, Marco.” I set off, Marco and Pluto following. And Eren right behind them.

“Jean, was it? Are you some sort of gnome?” Great, he’s addressing me now. The gnome part was clearly referring to my blue cloak and red pointed hat. Funnily enough, he wasn’t questioning the choice of headwear of his saviour. A kettle, by the way. Marco was wearing a kettle.  
“Yeah, I just prefer not to talk to strange birds whose vocal chords defy nature and allow him to speak English.”

Eren took that as his queue to stop talking to me, and turned to Marco. They started babbling about what Eren could do to return his favour since I said no to Adelaide. Marco suggested things like giving him the ability to fly, or to be able to talk to all of the animals, or the power to turn into a lion.

“Look, we're almost there,” I interrupted. Marco’s face lit up. One step closer to home. The town lay just over the hill, or thats what the signpost indicated at least. Me and Marco both sped up, jogging over the hill. The town lay beneath us, about a mile off. Pumpkin fields lay between us an Shiganshina, and a winding path weaving between the patches led us straight to the entrance of the town.

Half the buildings were in ruin and when we reached the town we found it was abandoned. Already disheartened, we split up searching the town for someone who could give us directions. Every building I went in was empty, not a soul to be seen. On the brink of defeat, I walked into a small quaint cottage where I did come across a soul. This soul, however, was a turkey. A turkey seated at a table that looked very disgruntled at being disturbed. I turned around and left at that. I'd just met a talking bird, and that was quite enough excitement for one morning without a potential talking turkey to add to the mix.

"Marco, Eren, have you seen anyone?" Marcos face appeared from behind a building, head shaking from side to side. Eren was perched on top of his head squawking in protest at the movement, flapping his wings to keep balance.  
“Have you?” Marco directed the question back at me, Eren settling on his head again.

Feeling defeated, we shuffled our way back towards Erwin's mill, dust kicking up around my mismatched shoes. Marco's posture had sunk, his shoulders hunched and tense. The ground beneath his feet was under intense scrutiny, as if he felt if he stared hard and long enough a map home would reveal itself in the dirt. Pluto was close at his heels, tail hanging limply as he reflected Marco's mood. Marco scooped Pluto into his arms, nuzzling him as they continued to walk. Beside me, Eren sighed, soft and twittering. I just stayed silent, concentrating on the steady rhythm of my feet. We just wanted to go home. Friends and family would be worried, we’d already been gone a whole night. And we’d managed to come so far away from home we had encountered a talking bird. That, or we’d both gone batshit crazy.

Marco halted, tilting his head like a giant confused puppy. “Marco?” We harmonised. I looked at Eren and he looked back, once again simultaneously. This was getting weird so I shoved him, forgetting he was a bird and sending him tumbling through the air. Marco turned around just in time to see Eren doing his cartwheels, and chuckled, applauding his performance. Stepping forward, he grasped my hand, bounding towards a large barn with me in tow. As we drew closer, clapping and cheering and singing floated through the air, growing louder and louder with every step we took. In front of us loomed a large wooden barn, paint peeling and faded. The doors towered high above us, with two simple metal rings as handles. Marco and I took a handle each, and pulled the doors open. Heat and sound engulfed us, practically pulling us all in. The doors shut behind us, and a welcoming voice offered us each a pumpkin. Turning around to decline, I was greeted by a vegetable man. His head was a pumpkin, his body another larger pumpkin, and his limbs made of wheat. Hollow eyes stared at me, waiting for me to say something or take the pumpkin from his hands. Neither me nor Marco said anything.

“You look a bit soon to be here, but you’re here and you’re welcome. So you’d best put these on, boys,” he pushed the pumpkin into my arms.  
“Uh,” Marco coughed. “What exactly is going on here?”  
“It’s the harvest festival, of course! I’ll leave you two to don your vegetable suits,” he finished, pressing another pumpkin into Marco’s arms before walking away to dance with other vegetable people.  
“What’s going on, Jean?” I shrugged my shoulders, making that musical ‘I dunno sound’ as I did so.  
“This is creepy,” Eren stated, flying up into the rafters.  
“Maybe we’re in Europe, mom always said they were different over there.” I offered.  
“Oh, so we just crossed the Atlantic Ocean while we weren’t looking?” I just looked at Marco, trying to pretend I was actually making a joke all along. I failed geography.

All around us vegetable people were dancing and singing, laughing and having a generally good time. In the centre of the barn was a tall pole dressed in long colorful strips of fabric. Atop the pole was a gigantic pumpkin head, and children were dancing around the bottom like you would with a maypole. The young girls all had their wheat hair in plaits and ponytails, and others had fashioned a dress out of it. All of the boys stuck to the simple pumpkin body, all in varying shapes and sizes. In one corner a couple of teenagers were peeling ears of corn, throwing the cobs into a basket as they chewed on a handful of kernels. In the other corner, a band was playing as people held hands and danced in circles in front of them, laughing as they sang tunelessly. Towards the back a larger man bobbed for apples, coming up with them stuck in his eyes as his friend laughed and picked them out like it were completely normal. They both then took one each, crunching on them as they walked away. And despite being told they were ‘vegetable suits’, I couldn’t help but wonder if they had digestive systems for all this food to go into.

Marco nudged me, whispering that he was scared. I understood where he was coming from, but even though we weren’t in Europe, we were clearly in a different culture. If I wasn’t allergic to pumpkin seeds, I might have looked past the strange dress sense and joined in. Alas, I would die horribly in the process. But Marco gripped my arm, drawing in close to me for a sense of familiarity and safety. Maybe I wouldn’t have joined in, then. “Come on, lets go ask someone for directions home,” I said firmly, trying to be reassuring. I walked forward, him in tow this time, and tapped someone on the shoulder asking them for directions.

“Most folks don’t leave, it’s nice here.” I just reiterated that we want to go home. “You want to go home?” She said, loudly this time. The music stopped, everyone started muttering instead of singing.  
“Home, he wants to go home?”  
“Why would he want to do that?”  
“But it’s lovely here in Shiganshina.”  
“Who said that? It was that strange looking one, wasn’t it?”

I felt like I was in some dramatic movie, and the tension was just starting to build in the cinema. Marco gripped my arm tighter. “Jean…” he whimpered. I gently moved his arm down from mine, squeezing his hand as I did so. Stepping forward I said, more firmly this time, “can anyone give us some directions?” The pole in the middle of the room moved, and the vegetable people parted to provide a clear path between us. The pole then bent down, and the pumpkin head stared at us with it’s hollow eyes. Pluto cowered between Marco’s legs, wrapping himself in his tail and hiding his head. Eren chose to grace us with his presence again, and suggested we leave and try find Erwin again instead.

“Leave?” Came a deep, gravely voice. “Why ever would you want to do that?” The pumpkin moved closer towards us, invading our personal bubble. The strands of fabric moved around like a body, two shorter strands acting like arms. They snaked through the air, providing extravagant gestures to accentuate his words.

“Uh, well we, uh, we just,” Marco stammered.  
I interjected. “We want to go home. We met Erwin, the woodsman, and he sent us towards your village. We looked around the whole town for people until we finally came here. And we want directions to go home.” The head tilted to look at Marco, weaving around us, studying us and judging us. Marco shuffled back towards me again, Pluto close behind.

“So you pried in our homes, possibly even stole from us.” Stole? Bastard. “Interrupted out private engagement, and now, you wish to leave?”  
“Yes.”  
“Well, we can’t let you do that. I simply have to punish you. I, Enoch, Mayor of this village, charge you with possible theft and trespassing. I sentence you both, to community service.”

Oh, great, community service. Now we’d have to stay here instead of finding our way home. I bet it’s ages, too. We’ll be stuck here for weeks. Stuck here with these strange vegetable people and their odd maypole pumpkin Mayor and their turkey that sits at tables and potentially talks.

“You will be free to go at six o’clock tonight. Brian, please take them to the fields to work,” Enoch concluded. Wait, what?

An older, shrivelled up pumpkin man came up to us and led us out of the barn. In a trembling croaky voice he explained our job to us. We were to harvest crops until five, and then begin digging a hole each. We were both hesitantly put into a ball and chain by Brian, who apologised every few seconds for this, making sure we knew that it was simply protocol. He even then put Eren in chains, who was now forced to hop along the ground with us. Brian loaded us into a cart led by two large turkeys, and the right one looked disturbingly familiar to the one I saw earlier. He eyeballed me as I walked towards the back of the cart, confirming my suspicion. I heaved my ball and chain into the cart, lifting Eren in as well. Marco shuffled in next to me, Pluto firmly in his arms. He smiled weakly at me, and I smiled back. An actual smile this time, too, not a mouth twitch.

We were taken to the crop fields, where we harvested pumpkins and corn. Marco and Pluto were having a whale of a time, whilst Eren just hopped around my feet bothering me. We then had to go into a clearing where we were handed shovels and ordered to dig rectangular holes. “See, Eren, this isn’t too bad. A few hours of manual labour and we’re free to go.” Eren just looked at me like I was an idiot.  
“Oh, and what then?” He finally said. “You’ll just wander around, not knowing where you’re going, lost forever in the woods? It’s not like you have the mental capacity to make a living out here either.”  
“Maybe we can stay here, it’s nice here,” I laughed nervously.  
“Alright, if you say so. But why do they even have you digging these holes?”  
“Seeds?” I suggested.  
“Well you’re pretty annoying, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were gonna bury you out here.” He’s such a charmer.

Over from Marco’s hole, there was a loud clanking. His head popped up, hair bouncing as he moved. “Look what I found!”  
“See, Eren, they’d buried something out here and we’re digging it up. Nothing suspicious.” Marco crawled out of his hole, revealing what he’d found. It was a skeleton. There was a skeleton. A god damn skeleton. They were gonna bury us out here. Maybe they’d knock us out first, or maybe we’d be buried alive. We were gonna die, this was it. “Eren, use your feet to pick the locks, do something, get us out! You owe us a favour, right?” In the distance, Enoch was making his way through the wheat fields, surrounded by white flags. “Eren!”

“Your time is up,” said Brian. Enoch was behind him, surrounded by the people who had come to watch our execution no doubt. “Are you finished?”  
“Yes,” Jean why did you say that?  
“Excellent,” Brian began. I cut him off, stammering about how we’d found rocks and we were delayed because we had to haul them out to carry on and we were still digging. I looked behind me, where Eren had hopped over to Marco to start breaking his shackled. He waved his wings at me, telling me to stall for time. I kept talking, and there was a clatter. Marco scrambled up and ran away, Eren flying behind him. They’d left me, I was stuck here with these blood-thirsty vegetables. I was going to die, all alone.

There was more clattering behind me, but this time it was less metallic. It sounded like something hollow was clattering around other hollow things. I looked behind me, and the skeleton Marco had dug up was dancing around. All the vegetable people ran forward, greeting the skeleton like an old friend. They dressed her in pumpkins and a wheat dress, calling her Hannah, when a skeleton crawled out of the dirt beneath me. I screeched, practically leaping out of the hole. The one I’d dug up was addressed as Franz, and they handed him a pumpkin head as well. They were all… skeletons?

Everyone was now dancing around Enoch, Franz and the Hannah included. “You sure you wanna leave?” Enoch turned to me. I nodded my head. I was not staying with these strange vegetable skeletons. “Hm,” he shrugged. As much as a collection of fabric could shrug. “You’ll join us someday.” He turned away, dancing with everyone else.

“Psst, what are you doing?” Eren emerged from the wheat behind me, looking angry and confused.

“You left me!” Eren nodded towards my feet where the shackled was lying open. “Oh.” I got up, joining them in the wheat field. We walked and walked until we reached the open, the sound of singing fading away into the distance. At the moment I didn’t care about getting home, I just wanted to get away from them.

The sun was setting, and a soft glow fell over the trees. The golden leaves shone brightly in the light, and Marco’s hair seemed to shimmer in it and his cheeks were flushed a bright pink from the cold. The leaves had started to go soft, and the crunch under my feet wasn’t as prominent anymore. Pluto was curled into Marco’s arms, fast asleep. Although it wasn’t Pluto anymore, Marco had renamed her again. She was now called Queen Elizabeth, or Lizzy for short. It had been two days since we left home, and I was starting to think we’d never find home, even if we did find this Adelaide. But I didn’t say this outloud.

“So I guess you don’t owe me that favour then,” Marco broke the silence. Eren sighed.

“You weren’t really in danger, Jean proved as much by staying there with them. I’m still bound to help you.”

“So can you take us to Adelaide?” Marco ventured.

“Sure,” Eren replied. “I’m going there anyway. I want to get home, too.”


End file.
